Yes, it’s another tie! These two strikingly similar captions came in on the very first day of the contest. I didn’t post them until four days later, so nobody, except me, was able to see them for the first three days. Congratulations to Cary Antebi (his thirtieth win — yes, that’s not a mistake, thirtieth! . . . and his last victory was ages ago, in Contest No. 126), and to comparative newcomer David Grand (this is his second win and his first victory was another tie . . . in Contest No. 153).

That Covid-19 bug seems to consistently bring out lots of funny captions. Here are the others that I was seriously considering:

“You realize this beard isn’t a mask, right?” (by John Platt)

“Ho Ho . . . Cough Cough . . . Hack Hack . . . Wheeze Wheeze!” (also by Cary Antebi)

“No, you can’t come visit me in the North Pole!?” (by Kay Ralph)

“Could you put your requests in the mail this year.” (by Michael Lomazow)

“No, you can’t have all the world’s masks.” (by Rich Wolf)

“Please sanitize your chimney, though.” (by Sharon)

“Let’s do this on Zoom next time.” (also by Sharon)

“You’re getting a gift that keeps on giving — a vaccine.” (by Pat Foley)

Nice work, Captioneers. A new Contest will be up before you can say “Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna immunization vaccination”, so be on the lookout for it.

Contest No. 168 starts right now (it’s another special pandemic contest).

Briefly, here are the details: Usually, I supply a drawing of one of my old cartoons that has never been published, leaving off my caption. For this contest, I’m supplying a new drawing. You are invited to submit your funniest captions. Simply (1) click on “Add New Comment” on the bottom of this posting. Then (2) scroll down past any other submitted captions and type in your name and your caption in the spaces provided. You will also be asked to verify that you are a human being and not a robot — please follow the instructions in the “Captcha” box. Then (3) click “Save”.

Your caption (or captions) will be posted after I review your submission. However, no captions at all will be posted for the first few days of the contest. This is to give everybody a chance to submit their spontaneous, gut-instinct caption without fear of discovering that it was ripped off by somebody else’s similar spontaneous, gut-instinct caption. This is an equal opportunity contest!

There is no limit on the number of captions you may enter, but I will only post and consider the first 15 captions from any contestant.

The cut-off time and date for you to send in your captions is midnight Tuesday, December 15, 2020. Shortly after that, the winner will be announced and the winning caption will be posted. I will be the sole judge and the winning caption will be the one I judge to be the funniest one submitted. Again, for this special contest only, I am not supplying an old, unpublished cartoon of mine, so I do not have any original caption to reveal.

Below is the drawing that needs your funny captions.

Wow, this coronavirus is really getting around. A few months ago it was on an almost deserted island, and just before that it was seen on a psychiatrist’s couch. Well, it’s the holiday season, so what better place for it to pop up than on Santa’s lap? What does jolly old St. Nick have to say to his little guest? Well, that’s up to you, captioneers . . .  good luck! And if you do happen to have little babes planning to visit Santa (not at all recommended this year), make sure they’re masked and well protected, because we all have to stay healthy!